The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-03-02
TOOTHACHE.
CURIOSITIES OF A PAINFUL
AND COMMON COMPLAINT.
Its Great Causes-A Few Simple Rem
edies-Odd Superstitions About
Aching Molars-A Lanca-
shire Preventive.

T. j. Bowditch writes curious article
on the toothache, printed in the Troy
Times. He says:
An immense amount of the worlds
misery consists in bodily pain. There
are few things more hard to bear. One
of the pains wh. .ch the human frame has
to bear is well-known and very painful
disease-the toothache. The pain some
times reaches up to the eyes, and some
times backward to the cavity of the ear.
1t attacks persons in all periods Of life,
but is most frequent in the young and
plethoric. We believe there are few
persons who could not bear breaking
heart better than al aching tooth.
The great causes of toothache are cold,
decay and disorlcred state of the stom-
ach, such as acidity, fatulence or indi-
gestion, or whatever disturbs healthy &C.
tion in the aGmentary organs. To re-
move these existing causes compound
colocinth pill should be taken at bed
time, and stomachic powder, composed
of ten grains of carbonate of soda, two
grains of powdered calumba, and four
grains of ginger in winegiassful Of
peppermint or common water, three
times day. Another reuiedy is of
more homely nature, but not less efect-
ual. Take piece OF coarse brown paper
about the size of the cheek, and steep it
in Jamaica rum then CRATE thick layer
of ginger over the saturated brown paper;
apply it to the side affected, and lie
down for half On hour. This application
will bring out a great deal of redness,
but leave no mark whatever.
Another cure for the toothache "a mi
raculous one) is in a book by clergy
man. He says: "Ayoung girl suffered
from toothache, anl she prayed to Jesus:
IF I were thou, and thou me, and thou
hadst such toothache as have now,
would long ago have cured thee" The
toothache, so writes the clergyman,
ceased Immediately. This remedy re-
minds us of hymn of the ''Big Veda,
where an old poet says: IF were India,
and thou vert my worshiper, would
long ago have granted thy petition"
of those afflicted with toothache is found
in St. Apollonia. She is specially in
voked by racked suffers, according to
Bishop Jewel; and the "Fantassie OF
Idolatrie" printed in "Fox's "Acts and
Monuments" has ...
To Saynt Syth for my PURSE
Saynt Loye save my horse; -
For my teeth to Saynt Apolyre.
In the royal library at Stockholm is
preserved manuscript charm for TOOTH
ache, consisting of a'Latin prayer to this
saint. At Bonn. on, the Rhine tooth,
said to have been one of hers, is shown
in a glass case in the Church of the
Saints Day, and is deyoutly kissed
e., the case containing the tooth, not tha
precious relic i'self-by people of both
sexes, as a repre-, ,entative against tooth
ache. One of the most peculiar charms
against the complaint consists in Carrying
the following form of words somewhere
about the person:
Sass SAINT Peter sat at the geats of
Jerusalem our Blessed Lord and SAVIOUR
Jesus Christ passed by and sead, What
Eleth thee hee scad Lord my Teeth eek
eth hee sead arise and follow me, aud
| thy Teeth shall never FAKE Eney moor.
Fiat-Fiat-Fiat!"
This is transcript Of ancashire
version, and should be worn inside the
vest of stays over the left breast. Under
slightly differing forms this charm is
very common throughout England, Scot
land, and re'and. Two copies are pre-
served in the Edinburgh Museum, which
were worn as late Us 1855 and 1869.
Another form of written charm was
given up by young woman at Chelsea
to the late Cardinal Weld. It was care
fully sealed, the penalty for opening 1t
being q return of the toothacne, and
consisted of these words:
Good devil, cure her,
Aud take her for your rains.
A cure the girl would probably dis.
like at the cost. Bishop Hall, in his
Character of Virtue and Vices, says of
the superstitious man: "He wears Par
cebrian characters for the toothache."
In some parts of Sussex, England,
there is superstition that if you put Oh
your right stocking, right shoe, and
right trouser-leg before tie left, you
will never have tocthache. To drink
out of skull taken from graveyard,
to take a tooth from skull, and wear it
70 nd the neck, to apply the tooth to
your own living, but aching tooth, to
put double nut IN yonr pocket, to pare
your finger nails and tee nails, and wrap
the parings in paper-all are charms
against the toothache In other parts
of England there i custom of calling
the toothachc tn; Glove pain" for which
the sufferer is not entitled to any COM
miseration; whether he or she consents
to this may perhaps be doubted.
An imperial toothlc lche once made the
fortune of poor barber. The Sultan Of
Turkey. having touch of too:hache,
sent for the court physician. Ee was
hunting and could no: be found. The
domestic turricd about Constantinople,
and at last found poor, ragged barber
surgeon. They took him to the palace
and furnished him with proper clothing.
lie drew the offenling tooth and soothed
the pain of the commander of the faith
full. A nice house and 1000 piastres
month were awarded m.
Mr.. Catlin. who number of years ago
had an intesesting exhibition of scenery,
dresses, weapons etc.. noticed tha
North American Indians had better teeth
than the whites lie accounto for the
difference in this strange way: That the
Indians keep their mouths shut, whereas
whites keep them open. The teeth, he
saws. require moisture to keep their sur
faces in good wo king order; when the
mouth is kept open. and the mucous
membrane has tendcn y TO dry up, the
teeth loose their needed supply of moist.
ure and thence come discoloration,